The Race No One is Talking About

Big Race for Last Place

The race to make the Wild Card spots for the American League has been a hot topic for the last month or so. Other races for playoff spots that aren't as hot and almost figured out include the AL East division race between the Blue Jays and Yankees (Blue Jays up by 1.5 games), the AL West division race with Houston up on Texas by 2 games, and the NL Central division crown, which St. Louis has by 4.5 games over Pittsburgh. However, there is another race that is being overlooked. It is the big race for last place!

There are 7 teams that are very well in contention to finish with the worst record overall in the 2015 Major League Baseball season. These five teams are:

30.) Philadelphia Phillies (56-89), currently last,
29.) Atlanta Braves (56-88), second to last by a half a game,
28.) Colorado Rockies (60-84),
27.) Cincinnati Reds (60-83),
26.) Miami Marlins (61-83),
25.) Oakland Athletics (61-83), and
24.) Milwaukee Brewers (62-81)

The race was a lot closer a couple of weeks ago, when the last four teams were all around a game or two back from each other. However, these teams are still within reach of each other to finish last. Atlanta has 2 wins alone in the month of September, TWO WINS! They have plummeted straight to the bottom with Philadelphia. With the way they have been playing, I can see them winning the crown for last place. And by crown, I mean dunce hat (That much for a dunce hat? Wow!).  However, anything can happen. Teams in the bottom of the league sometimes heat up in the final games of the season.

The Team That Will Heat Up and the Team That Will Be Last

The team that will heat up and avoid the dunce hat for last place and finish with the best record out of the 7 teams will be the Cincinnati Reds. Coming off a series win of 3 games to 1 against the best team in baseball is pretty solid for a team contending for last place. To finish out their season, they will face the Giants, Brewers, Cardinals, the red hot New York Mets, 1 make-up game vs the Nats, the Cubs, then finish it off with the Pirates. I see them winning at least 11 of their final 19 games.

Your last place team in the 2015 Major League Baseball season will be the Philadelphia Phillies. It was a tough choice between Philadelphia and Atlanta, because both teams have been cold as of late. For the majority of the season Philadelphia has been in last place. At one time Miami took control of last, but that was only for a brief stint. Philadelphia does not have many players for the future, and need to rebuild ASAP. Trading away Cole Hamels was a good start. There are some highly rated prospects in their farm system that will probably be with them next season or the season after. With the GM being relieved of his duties, I'm sure Philadelphia will bring in a guy who will make better choices with signing players to better contracts that the ones the former GM made.

Maybe next season they will avoid the "dunce crown for last", or perhaps they get hot and avoid it for this season. It will be interesting to see which team does finish with the worst record in this crazy 2015 MLB season.